Trump vows to fight US election interference

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that his administration will "move aggressively" to repel efforts to interfere in American elections and he accepted the US intelligence community's assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election.

"We are doing everything in our power to prevent Russian interference in 2018," he told reporters at the White House, more than 24 hours after his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, a meeting that drew a barrage of criticism from both aisles of Congress, pundits and US media.

"I accept our intelligence community's conclusion that Russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place," the president said. But he added, "It could be other people also. A lot of people out there. There was no collusion at all."

The president said he had misspoken when he said he saw no reason to believe Russia had interfered in the 2016 US election.

"The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why I wouldn't, or why it wouldn't be Russia" instead of "why it would," Trump said.

Trump's remarks on Tuesday indicated he was walking back his remarks made at the Helsinki summit at which many in the US believed he was publicly siding with Putin in attacking the US intelligence community.

In response to the uproar over the Helsinki meeting, the White House released a fact sheet on Tuesday, touting efforts by the Trump administration to protect US elections and stand up to Russia's "malign activities".

The president also said his administration had no plans to lift sanctions on Russia.

Following up on Twitter where on Monday he said "a productive dialogue is not only good for the United States and good for Russia, but it is good for the world", Trump insisted on Tuesday that getting along with Russia is a "positive thing".

"I enter the meeting with the firm conviction that diplomacy and engagement is better than hostility and conflict," he said.

He said the summit was an attempt to tackle "some of the most pressing issues" facing humanity.

"We have never been in a worse relationship with Russia than we are as of a few days ago, and I think that's gotten substantially better," Trump said.

Nicholas Burns, under-secretary of state for political affairs from 2005 to 2008, called Trump's Helsinki meeting "an absolute dereliction of duty".

"Trump did not say a single word of criticism & he had several opportunities to do so," he tweeted on Tuesday. "For Pres Trump to show so much respect to Putin & not to indicate any degree of criticism, frankly, it was weakness."

US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday said that Russia was not a friend of the United States and warned against a repeat of the 2016 election meddling.

"There are a lot of us who fully understand what happened in 2016 and it really better not happen again in 2018," McConnell said.

US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer President Donald Trump is trying to "squirm" away from his comments about Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The New York Democrat told reporters on Tuesday that Trump's clarification is "24 hours too late and in the wrong place".

Senator Rand Paul defended Trump, calling critics "mistaken" and saying that the US also has picked sides in other countries' elections. "We should look for ways to make the dialogue better," Paul said.

The Kentucky Republican said the lawmakers and former intelligence officials criticizing Trump include those from both parties who are opposed to his presidency, calling it "Trump derangement syndrome".

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

huanxinzhao@chinadailyusa.com